Giovanni Botero (c. 1544 – 1617) was an Italian thinker, priest, poet, and diplomat, best known for his work  Della ragion di Stato (The Reason of State). In this work, Botero argued against the amoral political philosophy associated with Niccolò Machiavelli's The Prince, not only because it lacked a Christian foundation but also because it simply did not work. Basing his political and economic ideas primarily on the thought of Thomas Aquinas, Botero argued for a more sophisticated relationship between princes and their subjects, one that would give the people more power in the political and economic matters of the state. In this way, Botero foreshadowed the thought of later liberal thinkers, such as John Locke and Adam Smith.